Line Dancing

Get In Line! Line dancing steps up at centers around Brunswick County

By Jan Morgan-Swegle

Anew year brings new resolutions. If you have resolved to improve your health, meet new people, or just have fun in 2022, try taking a line dancing class.

Line dancing dates back to the 1600s and was brought to this country by settlers immigrating to America. Some think that this type of dance is related to Contra dances, which are European folk dances where dancers form two lines facing each other and perform a series of steps in time to the music.

Line dancing found a home in the Western part of the United States and was very quickly associated with Country music.

Leland Classes Step Up

Veronica Lett-McGee, director of the Brunswick Center at Leland, says line dancing is very popular with seniors.

“The classes are always packed. We have from 20 to 30 people taking line dancing classes twice a week. It’s a great cardiovascular exercise that’s more like play than work. And then, there’s the cognitive advantage: Learning something new keeps your brain engaged and increases its neuroplasticity, or the ability of the brain to remember new tasks.”

Line Dance instructor Patty Farley, who teaches the hour-long Intermediate Line Dancing class, adds, “It improves your muscular

strength and flexibility and also improves your balance and coordination, lung capacity, and bone strength.”

Farley says that while this is a line dancing class, she considers it an exercise class. “It’s a mental and physical workout. You develop muscle memory based on the dance steps. You hear, you think, and then your body reacts with the correct steps,” she says.

The center offers a beginner’s class and an intermediate class. The intermediate class has a higher level of complexity.

“Some of the basic line dancing steps have roots in the Cha-cha-cha and the box steps, so if you have ever done ballroom dancing, you will recognize the step and the movement,” Farley says. “The decision to take beginner’s or intermediate line dance classes depends on the person. If you can already do the stroll and the grapevine and have flexibility and mobility in your hips, the intermediate class is for you.”

Step by Step

Linda Wadhams, who teaches the beginner’s class, agrees.

“If you’ve never done line dancing or just aren’t comfortable on the dance floor, start in the beginner’s class. The first week of class I break down each individual step, how to do them, and what they are called. We don’t move forward until everyone in the class is comfortable with the steps.

“The beginner’s class is also at a slower pace. There aren’t as many steps taught in this class so we can pay attention to the basics and start getting people to develop that muscle memory that Patty talked about,” Wadhams says.

“Beginner’s is a very popular class. We have anywhere from 20 to 25 people in the class, most of whom are women looking for social interaction and a way to have fun.”

The average age in each class is 70 to 75, although Nancy, a member of the intermediate class, is 82 and has been dancing for years. The classes may have different steps and a different tempo, but one thing was evident—everyone had a great time.

Line dancing is an excellent social exercise. You don’t need a partner and you master a new task as a team.

All photos by Jan Morgan-Swegle

Above and le : At the Beginning Line Dancing class at the Brunswick Center at Leland, newbies try out and prac ce basic steps. “It’s a mental and physical workout,” says dance instructor Pa#y Farley.